'We lost six lives, but that was not the end': Documentary on aftermath of Quebec mosque shooting screening Saturday

"We all heard about what happened. We all understand how terrible a tragedy this was," Syed said. "But I don't know if anybody can clearly understand exactly what happened. Not the bullets flying and the people dying and the killing. But what happened with the families and the victims and what they went through."

QUEBEC — Tariq Syed travelled to Quebec City within days of last year’s shooting at a local mosque. He met with survivors, mourning widows and orphaned children. He attended funerals for the six victims — both in Quebec City and Montreal.

Syed knew then he needed to do something to document what had happened. But the idea to produce a full-length documentary came to him a month later.

Syed, 35, was heading back to Quebec City to deliver some of the money Dawanet, a non-profit Muslim organization based in Mississauga, had helped raise for the families.

He was discussing the trip when a colleague asked him: “Was it five or six people who died?”

“I thought to myself: ‘This just happened, and somebody already doesn’t even know how many people died’,” Syed said in an interview this week.

“It’s one of the worst tragedies in Canada in recent times. And he couldn’t remember — forget about names and everything else — he didn’t even know how many people died.

“What can I do, from my end, to change that? The best way to capture it was to make a documentary.”

The result, filmed over the course of several trips in the months after the shooting, is titled “Your Last Walk in the Mosque.”

It was screened Saturday to a packed conference room in Quebec City, as part of several commemorative events to mark the first anniversary of the shooting.

Shuffling into the room, the families took their places among reserved seats in the first three rows. They exchanged embraces and well-wishes. Some chose to sit farther back, clutching tissues in their hands.

A host reminded the crowd there was a team of mental-health professionals on site in case anyone became too overwhelmed.

Aymen Derbali, after whom the documentary is named, was helped into the room on his wheelchair, escorted near the middle of the front row.

Derbali risked his life to save others in the mosque. He was shot seven times. He still lives in a rehabilitation centre in Quebec City, paralyzed. Families stood to meet him as he arrived.

The documentary begins with Derbali in a hospital bed.

“I walked in the mosque. I no longer walk,” he says at one point. “My last walk was in the mosque.”

In harrowing testimony throughout the film, survivors describe what they witnessed that night.

The prayer session wasn’t long, they said. Some people were done praying, others weren’t, when the first gunshots were heard. They sounded like they came from outside.

Through tears, they described the thoughts rushing through their mind once it became clear a gunman was opening fire in the mosque. How small decisions — move forward, move backward, hide behind a pillar, try to reach another room — decided who survived.

They recounted how victim Azzeddine Soufiane, 57, tried to neutralize the shooter, but didn’t succeed.

And how imam Nizar Ghali’s young daughter tried to run across the room to reach him after he was shot, but was cradled by a friend instead and hidden behind a pillar. Ghali also survived.

They all spoke of how Derbali confronted the shooter, and how they watched their friends fall around them.

As they spoke, images of the bloodstained mosque played over their voices. There were sniffles and tears and the occasional sob heard throughout the room Saturday.

The documentary’s focus then turned to the victims’ wives. Six men died in the shooting, leaving behind six widows and 17 orphans.

The women spoke of faith and love and perseverance. They mentioned the comfort of knowing their husband’s died in a mosque, minutes after praying.

“I’m crying. I know I’m crying,” said Idiatou, Mamadou Tanou Barry’s wife. “But deep down I know it’s not because he died. It’s because he’s not here anymore.”

They also spoke of forgiveness and the need for the community to remember what happened, but also find a way to move forward.

“It would be pointless to feel hate or violence and let it perpetuate that vicious circle,” said the daughter of one of the victims. “It would only lead to more victims. And I don’t need more victims. I know very well what they would live through.”

Saturday afternoon’s screening in Quebec City was one of the first times the film was viewed. Last August, Dawanet paid for the victims’ families to travel to Mississauga for a private screening at Muslimfest, an annual festival held for the Muslim community.

It was difficult — councillors and religious leaders were brought in to help them cope with the viewing — but Syed said they were all grateful for the end result.

He hopes the documentary will help people understand what the families have been through in the last year.

“We all heard about what happened. We all understand how terrible a tragedy this was,” he said.

“But I don’t know if anybody can clearly understand exactly what happened. Not the bullets flying and the people dying and the killing. But what happened with the families and the victims and what they went through.”

It was an overwhelming project at times, Syed said. He remembers the crew interviewing a widow, talking about the torture of not being able to locate her husband that night, while her one-year-old child walked around the living room.

Much of the film focuses on the aftermath of the shooting.

“We lost six lives, but that was not the end. It continues,” Syed said. “It’s ongoing and we don’t know when the end will come. We have six widows. Seventeen orphans. One person critically injured and paralyzed. Another with bullet fragments.

“My hope is that the documentary will help people understand. One year after the tragedy, here’s a glimpse of the families. See what they went through. Hear what they have to say.”

Commemorative events are taking place all weekend and on Monday, the first anniversary of the event, in Quebec City.

In Montreal, the city will hold a commemoration ceremony at city hall on Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

At a discussion panel on Friday, Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City cofounder Boufeldja Benabdallah urged Quebecers to use this weekend to honour the victims and build toward a better future.

“We have four days,” an emotional Benabdallah said. “We will remember, we will testify, and we will build.

“There will be tears, we can’t hide it. But we must build toward the future. The same way we have all year.”

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